Restaurant Review: Sushiism, Carrollton

Sushiism Restaurant and Social Lounge
http://www.sushiism.com/
Category: Sushi Bars, Japanese
Address: 1628 W. Hebron Parkway, Carrollton, Texas 75010
Star Review: 5/5

This is an absolutely wonderful restaurant! First off, the owner is so welcoming and will ensure that you are aware of all of the specials, of which they have many. They also have some excellent happy hour specials. The restaurant is beautifully decorated and is a calming environment. Of course, the most important part is the food.

My husband and I have now been to Sushiism twice. The first time we had dumplings, fried oysters, tuna stuffed avocado, and two different sushi rolls. We also had wonderful sake, both cold and hot. Everything tasted amazing!

The second time we went (this time with my parents) we again had the dumplings, they were just too good not to have again, and three rolls. We were still a little hungry after that and the owner recommended the marinated cod. It was a bit outside of my comfort zone, but I am so glad she recommended it. It was some of the best fish I have ever eaten. We also ordered another roll. All I can say is that EVERYTHING we have ordered in the two times that we have been to Sushiism was so tasty!

I would have to give the food and atmosphere both solid fours. What puts this restaurant over the top is the staff. They are welcoming and helpful, but not smothering. And the fact that the owner is there to give her recommendations is really special. She even spent some time teaching my mom how to use chopsticks!

I recommend this restaurant to anyone and everyone, adventurous eater or not, you won't be disappointed.

Texas Pinball Festival 2012

This year was our second year in a row to head to the Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) with Mike and Amanda. They invited us last year and we had an awesome time, so of course we went back this year. It was another fun time. We got to play quite a few pins, especially as the crowds thinned out later in the night. I really enjoyed playing the Twister and the Star Trek pins. But, as always, my favorite part was people watching. There are quite a variety of people who attend this event. It is cute to see the fathers playing pinball with their kids. There were even families who lugged around stepping stools so that their smaller children could play the machines. Then there were the uber geeks who were totally excited to play all the newest pins. Finally, as always, it was mostly guys at this event, so Amanda and I got quite a few stares. Ryan and I were so glad Mike and Amanda were able to come back in town from Austin for this event and we can't wait for TPF 2013!

Our Soon To Be New Home

A few pictures of our new home! I love the whole home, but the kitchen has to be my favorite. We sold our 1,300 square foot townhome and will now be living in the 2,900 square foot home. I can't wait to stretch my legs in all this new space! Three bedroom, two and a half bath, two story home complete with three living areas and a media room. I can't wait to move in in May!

Entryway

Formal Living Room

Dining Room

Family Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Master Bath

Media Room

Backyard

Offer Accepted!

Our offer on the house was accepted! I am so excited! Obviously we will still have to get an inspection and make sure we can come to an agreement with the sellers if there are any repair costs, but this is a step in the right direction.

I'm in love...

More to come on this whole buying a house process. Yay!

House Huntin'

Two weeks ago we started looking at houses. We had planned on starting to look a little more on into the summer, but the market is starting to come back, so we started to look. We found a house that we loved the very first weekend we went out. It is on a golf course and it fit our personality. The problem, we soon found, was that it was way overpriced for the neighborhood. It was within our budget, but we are not just emotional lookers, we want a good investment too. We had our agent talk with their's about the price and it just didn't seem they were willing to be realistic with the price. We were pretty upset as we loved the home.

So, yesterday we went and looked at another batch of homes. We had looked at five properties and not liked any of them as much as we liked the golf course home. We decide to quickly see if we could stop by it again since we were in the neighborhood. The homeowners agreed, so we went to look at it and fell in love with it all over again. We strongly considered making an offer, but we had one more home to look at, so off we went.

We had to head to lunch, because we had about an hour until we had to be at the last house. The last house was one that both Ryan and I had on our list, but Ryan liked it a lot more than me. I was concerned that it wasn't really our taste and would need a lot of changes that wouldn't fit in our budget due to the home price. He convinced me to go look at it anyway. Boy am I glad he did.  We fell completely in love with the home and made an offer last last night. Now, we just sit here, waiting to see if the offer is accepted or what the counter will be.  No jinxing it, but I have high hopes that the negotiations will go well.

While we were out looking, we came across an intersection I just had to take a picture at as you will see below.  Crazy!

My Birthday

This year I had one of the best birthdays I have ever had. It was so simple but so lovely! I got to sleep in because it was on a Sunday. The minute I woke up Ryan gave me my birthday present. He made me homemade Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. It is my favorite of all ice creams, but I always tell him never to buy it because I could eat a whole gallon in one sitting. This ice cream was the best ice cream I have ever eaten! It tasted so fresh and creamy. So, so good!

The afternoon of my birthday we went to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam. It was one of the best Cirque shows I have seen. Not my favorite. That still belongs to Love followed by Ovo. It was an awesome show, though. It was definitely worth the price.

Finally, we ended the day by having dinner together at Kenny's Burger Joint. This is one of my favorite little places to eat, but we haven't eaten there in over a year. It is way fattening and awful for your health, if you eat the stuff that tastes good that is. What is even worse is that it was both Happy Hour and $1 rib night!  Bad for our arteries, but perfect for my birthday! We shared onion rings and a few ribs. Ryan had the Ahi Tuna Sandwich and I had the BBQ burger. Everything tasted amazing!

A great birthday! I can't wait for the next one!

Moving and Shaking

So, we moved! It has been a pretty hectic time as we had to close one day and move the next. Luckily the buyers signed the papers on a Friday, so we ended up having the weekend to pack and move. We were scheduled to close on Monday, which is when Ryan and I signed, so if they hadn't signed early, we would have literally had one day to move. So, with the weekend, it wasn't as bad. Laurel, Ryan's sister, came over to help. We had pretty much packed all the boxes before the weekend, so it was just moving the boxes to our temporary apartment. We had around 50 boxes, crazy I know, so it took around 4 hours. Then, on Tuesday morning, the movers came and moved all of the furniture and appliances. It only took them about 2 hours and only cost us $225. It would have taken forever for us to move the furniture, so it was an easy choice.

Now, we are temporarily living in an apartment while we look for our next home. This was always kinda the plan, but selling our home in only two days made it a necessity. To be honest, I love our little apartment. It is roomy and has a lot of natural light, plus it has an awesome 300 square foot garage which allowed us to clean out our storage unit and save a bit of money. We have already been looking at homes, but we went ahead and signed a 7 month apartment lease, as we assume it will take us a bit to find the next home we want to buy and do any slight cosmetic work it may need.

Overall, this whole process has been really great! It could have taken us a year to sell our home, we might not have been able to find an apartment we loved, and this all could have been a big headache. Luckily, Ryan and I are both happy where we are at and excited to find our next home!

We aren't really planning on decorating the apartment since we are only planning on being here a few months, but here are a few pictures of our temporary home.